There's lots of IP shenanigans, and it's not axiomatically true that the PI owns their IP. My university, which is a pretty middle of the road state school, has several people who work on this full time, and they're genuinely busy.
The tricky part here is that if you call it a "gift" you don't get charged overhead, whereas you do if you call it contract research, which is what it actually is.
The tricky part here is that if you call it a "gift" you don't get charged overhead, whereas you do if you call it contract research, which is what it actually is.